Freedom not fear

Fear. There are different types. A lot of people have fear of failing but a lot are also fearful of flying.

Learning involves facing both. The process is uncomfortable but ultimately fulfilling if you follow through. To do so one must confront their fears. Fears of failing and fears of flying. Learn to roll with it.

When someone feels they are falling they often reach out for support. But what about re balancing instead? Don’t give in to the fear. Acknowledge it and move on. This doesn’t always mean standing your ground either. It depends on the situation.

Reaching out is fear of failing. Ok you may fall or maybe you won’t. You won’t know if you escape. Fear of failing is not even trying. This is self fulfilling and becomes perpetuating. It is learned helplessness.

But hey it’s comfortable to have an excuse. So is it really fear of flying then? Fear of flying is not trying because you want an excuse to hold onto.

Learning to be strong means being able to handle the situation in front of you. It means standing on your own two feet. It means falling and flying because that is a natural part of learning.

Don’t give in to your fear. Acknowledge it and face it.
Take up your sword.

Do not run away or you will never learn. Freedom means choosing not to let your fear defeat you.

Foot exercises

When you injure your shoulder you expect shoulder exercises. When you have weak legs you expect leg exercises. But when you have problems with your feet and ankles, most people turn to orthotics, shoes with ‘arch support’ etc.

Why not foot exercises?

I’m here to tell you to stop thinking about it and start doing them!

Being strong and healthy means being able to stand on one’s own feet. Feet!

The foot is a brilliant piece of design and if you maintain it, it can outperform any shoe. If you train and use it the way they were meant to be used.

However, most people misuse and abuse theirs. Why else do we all love foot massages so much?

So what causes this misuse?
Heels, sports shoes, poor walking patterns etc.The list goes on.
Notice that not once did I blame genetics. Because for most people it isn’t. That includes you unless you have CMT or something like that.
And if you have to ask, then you don’t have it. And if you do have it, you can still benefit from these foot exercises.

Imagine wearing gloves or mitts all day everyday. Your fingers, hands and wrists would lose their natural function too. Incidentally I see a lot of people with these issues but they get hidden in pockets. Literally.

But I digress because that is a post for another day.

In the modern western training paradigm they consider there to be seven basic movements. Hinge, squat, push, pull, lunge, rotation & locomotion. Proponents advocate training these in every session.

The ankle has six basic motions. Abduction, adduction, flexion, extension, inversion and eversion.

Following the same reasoning, these movements should also be trained. Unless you want a club foot that can’t do its job properly.

And how much? As much as you can since you are probably not walking enough and especially not barefoot. But otherwise do as many reps as the number of years you have been alive. Of each movement. Should take about 5 minutes for most people. For those who are keen, do multiple sets and/or multiple times throughout the day. Or in the morning and then again at night.

A lot of traditional martial arts do these movements in their warmup. It helps maintain natural movements and these movements are eseential for walking. Probably a good idea for you to do it too especially if you do not walk or train barefoot.

But if that isn’t enough incentive then think of how you are missing out on training over 20 muscles by neglecting the foot. Interested now?

And by retraining some of your intrinsic foot muscles your other muscles won’t have to compensate for their deficiency which means a healthier, stronger you.

If you don’t believe me take the 21 day challenge. Every morning and night, do as many reps of the above as years you have been around. So the older you are the more you have to rehab hence more training.

And although it may seem difficult at first just remember that everything else you learned in life was also difficult at first. Walking, running, writing, driving etc etc.

But if it’s important to you, you will stick to it. Or at least I hope so. I don’t have the energy or ability to treat everyone I see. You know that saying about walking and running right?

So if it’s important to you, do it everyday. Like sleeping, eating and walking.

Think of the Chinese proverb about teaching someone to fish rather than simply giving them a fish. The former empowers, the latter enslaves.

Going barefoot: thongs vs minimal shoes

It’s always winter somewhere in the world.  That was the motto when I was a climbing skiing afficianado. All my friends would chase the winter and the snow. Some had not seen a summer in ten years or more.

Right now it is winter in Sydney, Australia.  But apparently it is summer in North America. So people are getting out and about in less clothing and footwear. Not that I wasn’t wearing my thongs in the snow when I was living and playing in Queenstown but that’s a story for another day.

I have been reading about how evil thongs are because they encourage toe overgripping. Understandable because I wrote a piece on this previously too.

But now my views have changed. 

Firstly there is really no such thing as a barefoot shoe by its very definition. You’re either barefoot or in footwear.

But I digress.
Here is why thongs can be barefoot as it were.

The thong is superior to minimal footwear as it allows the multi directional and vastly complex ankle joint to move more freely.  This has always been my biggest gripe with shoes of any sort.

The thong does not induce toe gripping as I find the people who toe grip whilst wearing thongs do so in shoes too. No I don’t have xray vision, I asked. So the issue isn’t with the shoe. Because I also see the same patterns when they walk sans footwear. It’s not the tool…

Toe boxes are often too narrow even in minimal footwear which actually reduces natural foot and toe movement. Thongs do not have this problem.

I prefer thongs as it gives my toes greater freedom of movement than even ‘fingered’ shoes. However, you will see me at work in shoes not thongs because the facilities I operate out of have workplace regulations that deem thongs not suitable for supposed safety reasons.  If you come to visit me at home or in my studio you will more than likely find me barefoot.  Unless I am cold.

And all footwear including thongs and minimal footwear alter foot mechanics as they only bend like a banana whereas to stand up on your tip toes and to walk properly requires you to be able to achieve a double bend in the bottom of your feet. Try it now if you don’t believe me.
No shoe on the market does this even though I have seen some very misleading advertising by at least one popular footwear company. I won’t name names but they should be prosecuted as it is misleading and deceptive.

So, in conclusion, the thong is no worse than minimal footwear from a toe perspective and vastly superior in terms of proprioception and ankle mobility. 

Of course barefoot is better as it helps train and maintain foot anf ankle mobility, mechanics and strength.  This is something most people are missing nowadays.  This manifests in problems elsewhere in the body.

This is also why people need to do foot and ankle exercises but that is the next post.

Efficiency not enormous effort

Less is more. Quality not quantity. It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it and that’s what gets results!

Learning is about skill and efficiency.

This means getting yourself off the training wheels as you grow.

As I mainly teach movement and stillness, this requires development of neural pathways not muscles. Muscles should be proportionate to the pathways supporting them. As an aside there is no such thing as muscle memory.

The learning is through coordination of the musculature. Myelination or increased processing speed is what is really occurring. It is a process of making more efficient not necessarily a real memory in the muscle. Ask anyone with spinal cord injuries. The issue is with the process upstream of the muscle. The muscle is just the tool.

What is being trained is the ability to activate only those muscles necessary for the job. Excess is waste and leads to premature failure. Coordination also requires relaxation of those muscles not necessary for the job. Often a lack of ‘engagement’ in one area is due to overstimulation in another area. Hence, we must teach movement not muscle. The muscle is just the tool.

This efficiency comes from deliberate practice as the term is used within learning/mastery circles.

As part of the learning process, exercises to facilitate learning may be used. But don’t get fixated on the exercises. They are designed to teach principles.

Then you slowly take away the aids.

It’s about efficiency.

I remember an analogy used by someone in the physical fitness setting where they likened training to learning to play the piano. Practice a little at a time, aiming to get better. Not just being able to press the keys harder. And not training stupid by playing til your hands bled.

It’s about efficiency.

This is most important in posture, because we want the minimum muscle activation to hold us up so that we can save them for movement. But this also means we want the right muscles to be working.

That is efficiency. Using the right tools for the job.

I will be writing some follow up pieces specific to sitting standing and the feet as there seems to be a lot of confusion surrounding these areas based on what I see in the media and in my inbox.

Remember, efficiency.